The program had major problems, like the fact that it was intended as a sort of welfare health-care system for needy children who could not afford but ended up including a growing number of rich people and adults. The expansion would have brought more rich adults into it. A means-test and age-test cutoff should be a must.

So, $70K is “rich” in Manhattan? And San Francisco? What’s the average cost of living there as opposed to, say, the Navajo Reservation?

“I don’t think they belong on welfare programs.”

SCHIP is welfare? You do know you have to pay for it, right? And co-pays? And you don’t get it unless you have a job?

‘Is the “Children” in the name nothing more than a rhetorical trick to sell it as a “We care for the children” program?’

I think the Democrats were deliberately trying to expand it to adults under the radar, so to speak. But you’ll notice that the House Minority Whip didn’t brag about keeping “rich adults” off the program; he bragged about keeping “more kids” off.